Record Yourself Reading Your Child’s Favorite Books
The Guardian has published a list of children’s winners’ tips for growing bookworms. One of my favorite ideas comes from Julia Donaldson, the author I love. (I’ve read Gruffalo and Room on the Broomstick to my daughter dozens of times — they’re perfect.) Donaldson writes that she used to write down reading her children’s favorite books so they could listen to them in the car. It’s such a simple thing, but so special. Even if you don’t like the sound of your voice [ raises his hand ], your kids do. You can also invite grandparents and extended family to make your own notes.
How to do it: select a story, open voice notes or other recording mechanism, and start reading. Here are some tips for reading aloud from audiobook narrators . It’s okay if you get confused – in fact, it only adds to the charm. “My parents recorded Christmas Eve for my kids a few years ago,” writes Reddit user foxmom2 . “Our favorite parts are stumbling. For example, when my father stopped reading “on the chest … of freshly fallen snow.” It always makes me laugh. “
If you have more than one child, you can ask the older child to record the reading for the younger ones, like the blogger’s son Liski Myers did for his younger sister. “She loved the stories he wrote down and giggled when she heard him meow into the speaker when he told one of her favorite stories, The Hairy MacLary Scattercat ,” Myers writes . Or, your children may listen to their own recordings – this may encourage them to try new ways of reading or different types of books.
Once you’ve made an audiobook, you can play it back for your kids on the road, when they brush their teeth, or when you’re busy in the kitchen. Author Austin Cleon tells us that he and his wife used to record themselves reading their children’s favorite books, and then put the recording in a shared folder in Dropbox so they could play it while out and about. You can also use a service like Plex or My Media Server for Alexa so that your kids can ask Alexa to play it when you’re not at home.
Recording is not a substitute for a hug along with a book, but it can be a source of comfort for your children both now and later when they just miss your voice.